To those of you who wrote with ideas and good wishes for my little sick
Sprocket, thank you.
 
To those of you who have lost a ferret, my heart goes out to you more than
ever - I'd hoped not to join your ranks so soon.  I hope that there's some
truth to this Rainbow Bridge thing, because I feel like I'm missing a
little part of myself.
 
Sprocket picked me out by latching onto my finger with her teeth when I
reached into a bucket of baby ferrets at a pet store.  Sure enough, I
brought home a biter.  We worked on that for about a year, but I'm so proud
of her, she never bit anyone in the last 2 years - not even in the last 2-3
weeks when she'd get poked and prodded and jabbed with needles several
times a day.  She was always tiny and skinny and as smart as can be - she
could somehow flatten herself to get under the tiniest crack under a door
and escape to play in whatever the nearest forbidden area was.  She loved
kittens.  She could beat up her cagemate who is twice her size.  She was my
first ferret and she taught me how to take care of her.  A few weeks ago
she stareted with diarrhea and wasting away.  The vet tried several
things...a shot of steroids helped for 2 days, but then the cancer came
back with a vengeance and yesterday they gave her that final shot as she
lay on my lap.  I wanted to keep her longer, but she couldn't do anything
but sleep anymore and would fall down when she tried to walk.  I couldn't
ask her to stay any longer, I was just glad we had those few last weeks of
extra cuddles and pettings and that I could be there at the end, no matter
how hard it was.  Anyway, she's now under a new ceonothus plant in the back
yard.  I'll never forget her, and I hope that I'll be a better pet mom than
ever before in tribute to the friendship she showed me.
[Posted in FML issue 2675]